defeat is unacceptable
by queen ino
Summary: Defeat is the one thing that Haruno Sakura absolutely refuses to accept. For Sakura Week.


This is my work for Day Three of Sakura Week! c: The prompt for today was _defeat_, and my twist on it is this: that defeat is the one thing Sakura won't accept. Hope you like! c: Also – there are spoilers for the latest manga chapters in here, just a warning; so, if you're not up to date on manga, I advise you to either not read or go catch up. (Actually, you don't have a choice on that last one. Go catch up. Nowwww.)

Disclaimer: Nope.

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Defeat is an unacceptable concept to Haruno Sakura.

When she was younger, she didn't quite feel the same; the only thing she vowed to not be defeated at was winning Sasuke's love. She only made that promise (that she would never accept defeat) after two things happened: the first was Sasuke knocking her unconscious after her offer to accompany him, to Sound and wherever he went once he'd finished there, after which she woke up unsure of anything but that Sasuke was gone. The second thing, the one that really brought out her determination, was watching Naruto apologize to her for not bringing Sasuke back, despite that he was half dead from their fight, and then his vow to her that he'd bring him back eventually, no matter what. She'd told him he wouldn't be the only one there next time, that she'd be right by his side, fighting to bring Sasuke back too; that was the day she made the promise to herself that she'd never accept defeat in anything, but definitely not in failing to bring Sasuke back.

That determination was only further instilled in her during her medical training under Tsunade and Shizune; they made it clear, very clear, that in healing, _defeat was not an option_, not unless there was no possible way to save the patient. If that was the case, then she should try to make sure that their passing was as easy and quick as possible, and then to discover what it was that could have saved them and make sure she learned it, so that if a case like that ever came up again, she could save whoever it was. That was what taught her that, sometimes, defeat is impossible to avoid, and in those cases, even if defeat was the only path left, and all others were closed, she should grit her teeth and bear with it and learn how to keep it from happening again: basically, _don't give up_.

That was how she dealt with so many things in her life: her medical training, for one. There were some techniques that were incredibly hard for her to grasp, but instead of giving up on her first try, she just backed off from it for a while, regained her strength, and then kept trying again and again until, finally, she accomplished the task.

It also was what eventually got her promoted to the rank of Chuunin; after her original exam, the one in which she didn't even make it to the final rounds, she took it two more times – once with Ino and Chouji, and the second with Ino and Hinata, as Chouji made it on their second try, whereas she, Ino, and Hinata hadn't. Her second try, she did make it to the final round, but she ended up being paired against Neji for that fight, and he still outclassed her in fighting at that time, despite that she'd been Tsunade's apprentice for several months at the time. She'd given it her best, though, and while he did still beat her (and ended up winning the entirety of the tournament), she did come closer than anyone else had to beating him. After that, she threw herself into her training, learning everything she could in the months before the next Chuunin Exams, anything at all that might help her win against her opponents in that. On her third try, with Ino and Hinata, she made it to the third stage yet again and ended up in the final match, pitted against a kunoichi from the Sand, who, utilizing the super-strength technique she had learned from Tsunade, as well as her general knowledge of taijutsu and genjutsu, she eventually managed to beat.

The most important thing that her determination to not give up helped in, though, was probably saving Naruto on the battlefield during the war, after the Nine-Tails had been extracted from him by Madara and he was slowly fading out; she'd tried everything that she knew of and none of it had worked. She sure as hell wasn't going to sit there and watch her best friend die, though, and especially not after everything he'd done for her, so she'd ended up manually pumping his heart and performing CPR to keep him alive, until Kakashi took them to Kamui's dimension and the other half of Kurama was transferred into him by Obito. She'd nearly cried with happiness after he became conscious again; if he had died, she'd probably never have forgiven herself, whether or not there was anything she could have done.

After that, she'd known there was no way that they were going to lose, not after that; and she'd been right. It had been tough, so very tough, but between the work of all of the Alliance and especially the work of her boys, they'd finally defeated Madara, saving all of them from a fate that she feels probably would have been worse than death. (That's the one sort of defeat she _does_ accept – the type that isn't hers.)

Now, at twenty-three, she's one of Konoha's best overall jonin, and their best medical ninja (according to Tsunade, at least. Sakura still thinks that her mentor is better.); but she knows that she wouldn't be here without her determination to never give up, partly inherited from both her sensei and her best friend, but also found deep within herself during that conversation with Naruto so many years ago. She does her best to pass that shinobi way on to the generations she watches grow; it's always how she ends the speeches she gives to the Academy students every year, and she mentions it several times besides – if they're going to learn anything from her, it's going to be that defeat isn't acceptable, no matter what.


End file.
